One last day in paradise

On our last night there, we went out to what I will call a "Real" mexican restaurant!

 

We ordered lots of different things and all tried them.

One of the enchiladas we ordered had a sweet sauce on them, they were different but really good!

It tasted like there were cloves in the sauce.

Dustin really liked a soup called Pozole.

It was fun to try new things.
I wish I would have taken a picture of the menu...which was painted on the wall.

 

 

 

Dustin had one last Sangrita.

 

We enjoyed one last sunset.

 

After dinner we sat at an open air bar and watched the waves come in....and the stray dogs run by...;-)

 

 

A wonderful trip to Mexico!

Ziplining and a quick stop at the liquor store

Our next adventure was ziplining!

 

Two of our members do not like heights...but they were sure they wanted to zipline across a couple mountains!

I had done it before so the height didn't bother me...it was just launching off the side of a mountain that made me a bit nervous.

 

 

 

 

 

I hadn't really thought about this part but we had to hike up the side of the mountain to get to the ziplines!

The hike may have been worst part!!!

It was like a neverending trail of recycled tires.

 

We also had to cross a rope bridge.

 

 

One of the many  breaks we took on the way up...our guide, Wally, was maybe slightly out of shape!

 

The longest zipline was about 1/2 a mile across if I remember correctly.

It was awesome!

I think Dustin even went first on that one!!!!!

 

 

 

This picture is actually after we are all done!

Dustin had the camera again.

I have learned that when Dustin wants to "take pictures" he really means he will take about 15 videos!!!!!

So there are no still pictures of ziplining.

 

We had a great time though and we all survived.

Dustin even said he would do it again!

 

Part of our day of ziplining was eating pizza afterwards.

But it wasn't any ordinary pizza!

It was  baked in a stone oven and was fabulous!

 

The kitchen was all open...there were even a few chickens running around!

 

After our feast of pizza the boys decided they needed to buy a few bottles of their favorite tequila to take home.

The liquor store had bars across the front of it. ;-)

 

Good thing we had Antonio with us to order the right kind of tequila!

 

4 bottles of tequila later and we were on our way back to the villa!

 

 

 

 

 

Tequila and 4 wheeling!

By Monday of our trip to Manzanillo we had all had enough of laying in the sun reading our books.

It was time for an adventure!

 

We chose to go 4 wheeling through the jungle/forest and on the beach.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!

 

I don't have any pictures but an added bonus to our 4 wheeler trip was learning how tequila is made.

It takes EIGHT YEARS to grow an agave plant!

Who knew!

 

 

Look how CLEAN we are!

 

 

 

The handerchief was a MUST.

 

The boys had a great time.

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped along the beach where there were tracks to go up and down.

I did it once and quit-I didn't like it.

Erin got stuck going up the first time so she quit too!!!

Then we had fun watching Dustin and Matt pretend they were professionals!

 

The whole day was just so much fun.

 

 

Dustin had the camera most of the time so there are lots of pictures of my back side-good thing I wore a cute Cyclone shirt!

 

He even took a bunch of video while he was riding.

I tried to upload one but it wasn't working.

 

 

 

When we got back we were FILTHY.

It was so worth it though!

 

 

Dustin and I will for sure be doing this again on another trip!

 

 

 

Coconuts, the beach and more guacamole in Manzanillo

 

 

 

We sat at the bar one afternoon and watched a guy prune the coconut tree.

It was quite interesting.

We had all sorts of questions!

When he was done, he brought a few in for us to taste.

 

The house manager of the Villa was kind enough to prepare them for us.

He made a drink out of the coconut water and we also ate some of the meat.

It was good but not at all what I expected!

 

 

 

 

 

Nestor, preparing our coconuts while answering about 100 questions about coconuts!

 

When not drinking tequila, Dustin usually had a Corona or Pacifica in his hand!

 

One of the days we were there, the staff prepared lunch on the beach for us.

 

When Dustin and I lived in North Carolina and I prepared a lunch to take with us to the beach it was usually sandwiches, fruit, a bag of chips and drinks.

 

This was FAR more than just "lunch on the beach!!!!!"

 

 

 

They grilled AMAZING chicken and shrimp kabobs, rice, beans, a corn sauce that was fabulous, and of course guacamole and salsa!!!!!

 

AND they brought the blender to the beach so we could have margaritas!

 

 

 

Of course we needed sombreros for our feast!

 

The weather was perfect at the beach that day, we all read our books, played a little Farkle, and did  A LOT of people watching!

 

 

 

More guacamole!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Manzanillo Mexico #1

We had such a great trip to Manzanillo Mexico!

I don't even know where to start.

It's going to take me a few posts to share all our pictures!

 

We stayed at the Villa Paraiso, a 12,000 sq ft open air villa.

It was in a private, gated community within Colima, Mexico.

 

 

 

 

Our view of the sunset each night was amazing.

Most nights I watched it from one of the bar stools in this picture!

This was under the "Palapa."

It was a huge open air hut with lots of comfy places to sit, lay or eat guacamole!

 

The blooming flowers were a very welcome sight since we had left cold, snowy Iowa!

 

Dustin spent a lot of time in the hammock....he might have permanent hammock marks!

 

More bright flowers!

 

Another wonderful sunset.

 

We had our driver, Antonio, take us "to town" one day.

We stopped in both Santiago and Manzanillo.

Antonio knew some great places to take us, like to see a bunch of giant iguanas!

 

While we were walking around Dustin found a meat market.

Of course we needed a picture!

 

 

 

I tried to take pictures of the actual villa but it was so big it was quite hard to capture what it really looks like.

This was one of the 3 pools which overlooks the palapa.

Dustin found a new favorite drink..."Sangrita."

One shot glass had tequila in it, the other had something kind of like a Bloody Mary mixture.

The proper way to drink it is with a shot glass of each which looks really cute but I didn't like it.

I stuck mostly to margaritas and Coronas!

 

 

Another view of the palapa.

The back corner is the bar where we spent a lot of time chatting, drinking and playing games!

We took along Farkle as well as Euchre and played almost every night.

We switched partners too much to know who the real winner of the week was...but I'm going to say it was Erin and me!!!!!

 

 

This pool was deep enough to swim in or float.

We mostly floated.

When I showed Peighton this picture she was impressed that they had "pool toys" for us!

 

One of the best parts was the awesome guacamole and roasted salsa EVERY DAY!!!!!!

The rest of the food was great but the guacamole was fabulous.

 

I was standing at the bar taking this picture.

These were our rooms that also had a fabulous view!

 

 

I will share more in another post!

We rode 4-wheelers through the jungle as well as the beach, went ziplining and just had FUN!